The Reality of Medical Reality Television: Analysis of Physician Demographics, Trauma, and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Characteristics

Background Television and media have a profound effect on viewers’ understanding and interpretation of the world we live in. Reality television can be even more influential to viewers given its depiction of “real life”. Materials and methods Every episode (n=46) was analyzed from five medical reality television shows. Hopkins, Boston Med, NY Med, Vanderbilt MDs, and Lenox Hill were selected based on criteria requiring the show to be a reality show or docuseries that recorded unscripted patient interactions in the inpatient setting or emergency department. Results Of the 185 physicians shown on medical reality television, most were male (76.8%), white (80.0%), and surgeons (62.2%). Of the 417 patients shown on television, 72 patients had a traumatic mechanism of injury. Traumatic mechanisms included injury due to motor vehicle accident (29.2%), firearm (26.4%), cutting/piercing (12.5%), fall (12.5%), and fire/flame/hot substance (6.9%). Twenty-two of the 417 patients required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Seven patients (31.8%) experienced cardiac arrest due to a traumatic mechanism of injury. Conclusions There was an overrepresentation of male physicians, white physicians, and surgeons on medical reality television compared to current demographic data on physicians (p<0.01). Traumatic mechanisms of injury by firearm, cutting/piercing, fire/flame/hot substance and traumatic causes of cardiac arrest were over-represented on television compared to current trauma and CPR registry data (p<0.01). This skewed “reality” of medicine as a non-diverse landscape riddled with trauma has the potential to profoundly impact viewers’ understanding of medical professionals and the medical field.